Bart the
Bear: A Tribute
Human actors usually get all the credit when it comes to
movies. Lately there’s been criticism over the lack of acknowledgement for
visual effects artists who are overworked and underpaid despite contributing
greatly to the majority of big movies being released. Many other behind-the-scenes
roles have been pointed out as being more important than the average viewer
realizes, but what about roles in the
scenes that have gone unappreciated? When it comes to animals in movies, they
have largely been seen by viewers as mere props or set decoration, and all too
often the fact that they are real, living beings like the actors playing the
human characters alongside them is lost or ignored.
One of my favourite animals to have worked in Hollywood is
the Kodiak bear known professionally and personally as Bart the Bear, and I
have talked about him numerous times before in reviews and countdown lists. You
might not have even realized you’ve seen this particular bear in more than one
movie before; his history in Hollywood is a rich one, full of success and
incredible roles alongside many famous Hollywood stars. So, this is my tribute
to one of the most underrated thespians to have worked in the motion picture
business: the titan of animal actors, Bart the Bear!
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Bart as an adorable cub
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The story of Bart begins with his birth at the Baltimore Zoo
on January 19th, 1977. By this point in time, many great bear actors
had come before him, in memorable films and television programs such as The Night of the Grizzly (1966), Gentle Ben (1967-1969), The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams (1974), and Day of the Animals (1977). Bart was only five weeks old
when animal trainers Doug and Lynne Seus adopted him and took him to his new
home in Utah. He got an early start in acting, landing his first role in the TV series following the film of the same name, The Life
and Times of Grizzly Adams (1978). Bart was still only a cub, but grew up fast,
and reached an adult size of 1500 pounds and 9.5 feet tall. It’s hard to
believe such a massive, imposing creature had such a cute, innocent origin, and
harder yet to imagine he could be on a film set—and yet, his career as a bear
actor took him to many parts of the world for over two decades, and according
to Lynne Seus, Bart knew when he was
on camera.
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The Clan of the Cave Bear (1986)
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Bart made his film debut in Windwalker (1981), a western shot in his home state. He had an even
bigger role in The Clan of the Cave Bear
(1986), playing the prehistoric ursine after which the clan was named, even
though the now-extinct cave bear was larger than the modern day Kodiak. In
fact, Bart often played brown bears, or grizzly bears, which are actually
smaller than the Kodiak subspecies, but audiences never really noticed, usually
because they were too scared by his size and ferocity. That ferocity he
displayed, though, was pure acting talent. Trainer Doug Seus would tell
Bart to “get angry” and Bart would do just that, but then Doug would follow it
up with “easy, big guy” and Bart would go back into teddy bear mode. When I
first saw Bart in a movie, I was terrified, but when I saw behind-the-scenes
footage much later, I realized he wasn’t actually the vicious, bloodthirsty
beast he played so convincingly.
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Doug Seus & Bart
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It cannot be said that most animals in Hollywood’s history
have had it easy and made it through the system unscathed. Many animals not as
well trained or as well cared for as Bart have injured people on set, been
injured themselves, or even escaped their enclosures, but with only one
exception that we’ll soon look at, Bart never hurt anyone during the making of
any of the movies he was in, and he was never hurt either. This is thanks in no
small part to Doug Seus and the many other trainers that worked with him
throughout the years. Even though it can be nail-biting to watch Doug playfully
rolling around with Bart, being pushed around by his comparatively massive paws
and head, you can tell there is complete trust between man and animal. Doug cited
Bart as “his soulmate” and never showed fear with him, but you can bet many of
the actors who worked with him didn’t have to try all that hard to look scared
when facing down a snarling Kodiak that could easily kill them if he wanted to. For example, when Bart barges into the cabin John Candy and Dan Akyroyd's families are staying in during their vacation in The Great Outdoors (1988), they look pretty genuinely terrified, though the scene is played for laughs.
Bart had a heart of gold and never hurt any of his human
cast mates, but male bears instinctually kill young bears, so Bart had to be
conditioned to not hurt the cub. Not only was Bart gentle with Youk, he gave
one of the best performances of his career. The only evidence I could find of
Bart ever hurting someone was in the case of director Jean-Jacques Annaud.
Photographers wanted Annaud to pose with Bart for publicity photos, but Bart’s
trainers warned the director not to enter the bear’s enclosure. Annaud ignored
their warnings and received some nasty wounds on his backside from Bart’s
claws. Even after this incident, Annaud still respected Bart, and called him
“the John Wayne of Bears.”
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The Bear (1988)
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Bart received so much praise for The Bear upon its release that a campaign was organized to get him
nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor. How awesome would that have
been? A Kodiak bear nominated for Best Actor in a motion picture? He deserved
that nomination, but the Academy refused to include animals in their Best Actor
category. Bart wasn’t about to hold a grudge, though, and he kept giving it his
all in every role he landed. Some of his roles were small, but no less
impactful because of their brevity. The most notable films in the years
following The Bear were White Fang (1991), one of many
adaptations of Jack London’s novel, and Homeward
Bound: The Incredible Journey (1993), a remake of The Incredible Journey (1963) based on the novel by Sheila
Burnford. Then came one of Bart’s biggest films since The Bear: the western drama Legends
of the Fall (1994).
Ed Zwick, the director of Legends of the Fall, had this to say about Bart: “Of all the movie
stars I’ve ever worked with, Bart the Bear is as talented, cooperative and
charismatic as the best of them. He takes no time at all in make-up, never
wants to stay in his trailer, and does all his own stunts. I can’t wait to work
with him again.” Human actors who worked with Bart over the years had nothing
but praise, as well. Some co-stars throughout his career included Daryl Hannah,
Ethan Hawke, Steven Seagal, and Brad Pitt. One of the actors who worked with
him in Legends of the Fall was Sir
Anthony Hopkins, who ended up working with him again even more closely in
another production that, like Legends of
the Fall, was shot in British Columbia and Alberta. This would end up being Bart’s greatest role since The
Bear.
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The Edge (1997)
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The 20th Century Fox production The Edge (1997) proved to be
the perfect combination of talent in front of and behind the camera to make
Bart into one of the scariest bear characters to ever appear on film. Even
though his screen time amounts to only a few minutes, he made a very strong
case for why he was the best bear for the job: a man in a suit or a digital
bear created by CGI artists just would not have had the same impact as him. The
film made Bart appear to be the deadliest apex predator in the Alaskan ecosystem,
and in real life it’s true that the Kodiak bear is deadly, but
behind-the-scenes, it was a totally different story. Bart was so chill while
they were shooting that star Alec Baldwin was actually worried The Edge was going to flop because the
bear wouldn’t be scary enough. Baldwin couldn’t believe how terrifying Bart was
in the final cut, and suggested he reward the editor for making him look so
scary. It was actually the work of the editor and the special effects department who used fake stand-ins for
quick cutaway moments when Bart might have been injured or caused injury and the composer Jerry Goldsmith who
conducted an ominous musical theme to accompany his scenes and director Lee Tamahori who knew how to direct him and his human
co-stars.
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Bart the Bear and Sir Anthony Hopkins in The Edge
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Anthony Hopkins was likewise impressed once again, and spent
lots of time with Bart in between takes. Lynne Seus is quoted as saying this
about Hopkins: “He acknowledged and respected [Bart] like a fellow actor. He
would spend hours just looking at Bart and admiring him.” Hopkins also acted in
many scenes with Bart directly when shooting The Edge. Historically, when a real animal like a bear was used in a film
production a stunt person would often take the place of the primary actor, or
the trainer might even play a role if they have to interact closely with the
animal, but in the case of The Edge
you can see in the completed film that it’s very clearly Hopkins and Baldwin in
many shots with Bart menacing them. Though the film underperformed at the box
office and received some average reviews from critics, it has since grown a
more positive reputation, and no one could deny how great the acting was (regardless
of the species).
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Bart at the Oscars
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Bart would play a circus bear in the box office bomb Meet the Deedles (1998) following The Edge, but his most famous appearance
post-The Edge was on TV, during one
of the most star-studded nights of the year. Bart was introduced by Mike Myers
at the 70th Academy Awards and presented an oversized Oscar envelope
to Myers! Respect to Bart: even after being rejected by them as a nominee for
Best Actor, he still showed up to present in-person on stage. He had finally
reached that level of fame, but
unfortunately, this would end up being in the twilight of his career.
Just over a year after The
Edge was released, Bart developed cancerous tumors in his paw, and had them
surgically removed. I was surprised to learn the average lifespan of a male
Kodiak bear in the wild is only about twenty five years, and unfortunately Bart
would not even live that long. The cancer became too severe, and he died on May
10th, 2000 at his home on the Seus family ranch in Utah, where he
was buried. At the time of his death, Bart was filming a documentary for TV
called Growing Up Grizzly (2001)
which was narrated by his Legends of the
Fall co-star Brad Pitt. Even though Bart has passed on, his legacy lives on
with that impressive filmography, but he’s left his mark in more ways than one.
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Rattler (Chance) & Bart: Homeward Bound
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In the 1990’s Doug and Lynne started the Vital Ground
Foundation, which aimed to bring awareness to the importance of brown bears to
the ecosystem and to protect and restore their dwindling habitat. Bart was
Vital Ground’s first ambassador (or “spokesbear”) and continues to represent
the nonprofit organization to this day, helping teach people about how
intelligent and crucial bears are. He also became a “spokesbear” for the Animal
Cancer Center at Colorado State University, but it’s his contributions to Vital
Ground that he will be most remembered for aside from his films. Bart never
knew a life outside of captivity, and Doug and Lynne have said they learned
more from Bart than he ever learned from them. They have saved many bears from
the life he had—not to say he had a bad life, but wild animals belong in the
wild, and Vital Ground has helped ensure more bears live the lives they should
be living in their natural environment.
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"Little Bart" in Game of Thrones
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Bart also had some adopted siblings. In 1995 Doug and Lynne
adopted Tank the Bear—a Grizzly bear, not a Kodiak, meaning he wouldn’t grow as
large as Bart when he reached adulthood—and Tank would go on to star in a few
movies, but he never tried to live up to the legacy of Bart. Shortly before Bart’s
death, Doug and Lynne adopted two more bears orphaned in Alaska, and one of
them would carry on Bart’s namesake and take on the mantle of most-sought-after
bear actor. This bear was known as Bart the Bear 2 or frequently nicknamed “Little
Bart”, and he was in films and TV shows such as Without a Paddle, Into the
Wild, and Game of Thrones. Bart
the Bear 2 also had a sister named Honey Bump who, along with Tank, remains an
ambassador for Vital Ground to this day. Sadly, Bart 2 passed away in 2021, but
like the original Bart before him, he too has left an indelible impact on
Hollywood and the world.
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Bart the Bear, The Edge
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There was much more to Bart the Bear than what came across
on the big screen, and his story deserved to be told. I’ve been fascinated by
Bart ever since I saw The Edge when I
was just a kid, with that distinct sagging bottom lip, those bright brown eyes,
huge claws, burly shoulders, and his imposing stature. I hope you enjoyed
reading about this underrated Hollywood star as much as I enjoyed learning all
about him and writing this tribute. With Hollywood now opting to feature bears in
movies by utilizing digital visual effects instead of casting actual animals,
there may never be another bear actor as great as the original Bart ever again.
Sources:
https://bartthebear.com/
https://www.vitalground.org/
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1075976/?ref_=nmbio_bio_nm
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